Finding self-confidence through tension

Acting program helps African preteens open up

Teaching artist Anu Yadav (left) helps Yosefe Eshete, 11, of Silver Spring (back right) direct a scene Jan. 28 using Franck Ketchouang, 13, of Silver Spring as the actor. An after-school program run by Imagination Stage at White Oak Middle School helps African immigrants open up about their day-to-day struggles.

As a group of young African immigrants struggles to adapt to life in America, an after-school drama program at White Oak Middle School in Silver Spring strives to make their lives easier by first making them a little harder.

Project X is a program that uses drama, dance, poetry and other creative outlets to help the students discuss the tough and sometimes painful problems they face as preteen immigrants with significant language barriers, instructors said. A final unveiling of their creation will be performed for friends, family and donors at the end of the year at Imagination Stage, a nonprofit children's theater in Bethesda.

Wanjiru Kamau, coordinator of the school's African Club and executive director of the African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation, said it's important to agitate the members of the group in order to help them eventually find their place at the school.

"It comforts those who are uncomfortable, and it discomforts those who are comfortable," she said of Project X, which is a collaboration between the school's African Club and Imagination Stage. The project is jointly funded by the Bank of America Foundation, Children's Charities Foundation and the Montgomery County Collaboration Council, she said. A Project X program also exists at Argyle Middle School, in Silver Spring, that works with students from a variety of backgrounds.

Mama Kamau, as the students call her, teamed up with Imagination Stage after she noticed that many African students felt uncomfortable talking about problems that some deal with every day, such as being teased by their fellow students about how they look or talk. When most of the kids join the club, they speak little or no English, she said. Each week, the club typically draws five to 10 students who are originally from Africa or the Caribbean for discussion sessions as well as the Project X program.

The students don't realize how difficult it can be to develop confidence and find their footing in their new surroundings, Kamau said. In a meeting Jan. 28, members of the group struck poses, tossed bean bags and decorated journals that will be used to document their day-to-day struggles.

"We're going to express ourselves through our words and our actions, and that's powerful," said teaching artist Meg Green as she and fellow teacher Anu Yadav introduced fill-in-the-blank poems the students wrote about their identity. Green and Yadav are freelance artists Imagination Stage hired to help with Project X.

One student, Franck Ketchouang, 13, of Silver Spring, wrote, "I am from the world; I am love," which drew oohs and aahs from the group.

Ketchouang has been in the country less than a year, said Program Coordinator Chad Dike, who works for Imagination Stage. When Ketchouang started attending Project X, he had been in the United States for two months and spoke no English. Now he's one of the most outgoing of the group and helps translate instructions from English to Creole for the group's newest member, who is from Haiti.

"You can express yourself through your body," Green explained. "It doesn't matter if you can't say it in English."

"A lot of people will just give you up [if there's a language barrier], but these people validate them," Kamau said of Imagination Stage. "You do have something to give. You are important. When TV, media, etc. are bringing them down, this program is bringing them up."

Although most of the students said they joined the group for pizza parties and time with friends, they found it comforting to be within a group in which others speak their language.

By the end of the school year, the students will have created a performance that combines acting, poetry and physical expression to articulate their experiences. They will do the bulk of the writing for the show at a camp they attend over spring break.